Saucy Temptress Keeps the Temperature Cool

As she has risen to stardom over the past decade the Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca has been one of the most frustrating singers in opera. There are few voices as sheerly lovely as hers: a smooth, evenly produced instrument, rich but not heavy, with high notes that penetrate without blaring.

And yet there are few blanker performers than Ms. Garanca, few gulfs as wide as that between her technical capacity and interpretive flair. Returning to the title role of Bizet’s “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera on Friday, she came, she sang and she squandered — both her extravagant talents and the opportunity to make a powerful impact in this juicy part.

Ms. Garanca was Carmen when Richard Eyre’s stony production had its premiere on New Year’s Eve in 2009, and Don José, her star-crossed lover, was then the dependably passionate tenor Roberto Alagna. On Friday they reunited for the first time since then, and the spectacle was largely unchanged, with Mr. Alagna trying to gin up the intensity and Ms. Garanca keeping the temperature stubbornly cool.

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Carmen Elina Garanca in the title role and Gábor Bretz as the bullfighter Escamillo in this Richard Eyre production at the Metropolitan Opera.CreditMarty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Consider the first act, in which Carmen’s famous Habanera and Seguidilla lay out her seductive powers and relationship to the world around her. Ms. Garanca hits all the notes, but her phrasing lacks wit, surprise and allure. She flashes smiles and ruffles her skirt, as if on cue, but those motions don’t add up to a perspective on this complex character.

There is little charge in her interactions with Mr. Alagna, his voice plangent, steady and generous and his acting appealingly forceful. He had a more energetic, focused partner in the rising soprano Ailyn Pérez, making her Met debut as Micaëla.

A confident, forthright presence in a role that can fade into merely demure, Ms. Pérez has a penetrating, settled voice. Her tone may not be sumptuous, but it’s clear and articulate, and she uses it with intelligence and a sense of purpose. The evening’s other debutant, the bass Gabor Bretz, was less successful, pressing his voice to sing the toreador Escamillo and sounding rough and colorless.

Louis Langrée, the music director of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, conducted a brisk, crisp performance, stolid only in an oddly sleepy crowd scene at the start of Act 4. That certain passages — the moody third-act Card Trio, for one thing, and the ferocious final duet between Carmen and José — failed to accumulate tension may be more Ms. Garanca’s responsibility than Mr. Langrée’s.